Opera Kansas Presents Tobias Picker’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox”

Opera Kansas presents a new production of Tobias Picker's beloved opera, Fantastic Mr. Fox on September 22-23 using the composer's chamber version of the work for seven players. Kenneth Tysick conducts and Ashley Winters directs.

A modern fable, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a story about good vs. evil, animal vs. human, and nature vs. technology. With the help of the other creatures of the forest, Mr. Fox must outwit his enemies to keep his family safe. Mr. Fox finds that he may have stolen one hen too many from the henhouse, as the meanest farmers anywhere — Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (one fat, one short, one lean) — conspire to rid their lands of the Fox family once and for all. The Foxes are able to evade capture with the help of some woodland friends, leaving the farmers laying in wait while the animals help themselves to the fruit of the farmers’ lands. Having had their revenge, the animals return for a sumptuous feast far from danger in the Foxes‘ new home, while the farmers continue to wait in the rain.

Named “our finest composer for the lyric stage” by The Wall Street Journal, Tobias Picker's operas are filled with exquisitely lyrical and dramatically potent arias which have been collected into anthologies for various voice types. Collections for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, and Baritone/Bass are available from Schott Music in print and digital formats.

Listen to Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox in the chamber version here: